Ghana-Mexico to utilise opportunities in transport sector

By Christabel Addo-GNA
Accra, March 22, GNA - Ghana and Mexico, on Wednesday, started discussions on exploring the opportunities in the transport sector for their mutual benefits.

Ms Maria de los Angeles Arriola Aguirre, the Mexican Ambassador to Ghana, on Wednesday, who initiated the move when she paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Transport, Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, Mexico, said Mexico had a great deal of experience in the area of transportation.

Consequently, she expressed the hope that critical areas would be identified for urgent assistance for improvement.

Mexico, she said, would also learn from Ghana's experiences in the process.

She said although Mexico had been one of Ghana's trading partners for many years, it was yet to venture into the transport sector and it looked forward to fruitful partnerships.

Ms Arriola Aguirre used the opportunity to congratulate the Minister on his appointment, and also Ghana, on the occasion of her 60th independence anniversary.

She pledged the commitment of the Government and people of Mexico in maintaining and improving the strong bilateral relationship that had existed over the years.

Mr Ofori Asiamah, for his part, welcomed the opportunity, saying Ghana's transportation sector was beseeched with numerous challenges ranging from poor road networks, sub-standard vehicles, non-availability of quality spare parts, road safety education, lack of technical skills and personnel to the high rate of road-traffic accidents.

He said at present about 90 per cent of the public transportation system were in the hands of the private sector.

However, he said, the Metro-Mass Bus Transit system, which was being managed by the Government to provide a cheaper alternative, was not working well as expected.

He attributed the challenge to a number of setbacks, saying collaboration in areas such as the provision of technical assistance in education and skills training for both drivers and engineers, as well as support for the purchasing of more of these busses, would be highly welcomed.

To ensure the successes of the project, he asked for assistance to revamp the Government Mechanical Training Centre at Kaneshie, which used to train personnel to manage and repair these buses, and other State vehicles, to ensure quality human resource and high skills for the transport sector.

Mr Asiamah said: 'Ghana should have had about 1500 of these Metro-Mass-Transit busses to ensure an effective system, but only 400 of them are currently available.' 'We need to top up as quickly as possible else the system would totally collapse within the next one year'.

He said Government was also trying to organise an active towing services to help remove broken down vehicles quickly from the roads to minimise the rate of road accidents.

He said it was the vision of the Government to revamp the transport sector, expand and make it more vibrant and safe for both operators and commuters, and to also create employment opportunities for Ghanaians, particularly the youth.

GNA